Steps to get unemployed benefits may be eased

Skills test, online filing may change

May 18, 2014|By Marcia Heroux Pounds, Sun Sentinel

Florida residents who lose their jobs may avoid two controversial steps for getting unemployment benefits.

Legislation awaiting a decision by Gov. Rick Scott would eliminate the skills test used to assess applicants' math and problem-solving skills. It also would provide an alternative to online-only filing.

Critics in South Florida and nationwide have said the two requirements are onerous for residents filing for unemployment benefits. Both were part of a state overhaul of unemployment that Scott pushed in 2011.

Mason Jackson, president of the workforce agency CareerSource Broward, said the changes would make the system less frustrating for the unemployed as well as his staff, which ends up helping the unemployed navigate benefit issues.

"We're the face. They come in and complain to us," he said. CareerSource Broward's primary role is helping the unemployed get jobs.

The changes, approved by the legislature this month, would make the skills assessment voluntary and would require Florida's Department of Economic Opportunity to provide another filing method if the online system was "unavailable."

Governor's spokesman John Tupps would not say whether Scott intends to sign the bill, which would take effect July 1. "Our office will review this legislation when it reaches the governor's desk," he said in an e-mail.

DEO spokeswoman Jessica Sims said the department "looks forward to the governor reviewing and signing this bill." She said she couldn't discuss specifics, such as what the alternative filing option would be.

Florida Legal Services said unemployed workers have been unable to get benefits if they were not computer literate, were disabled or had certain language issues. The organization filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor, which said last year that key elements of the state's unemployment program violate civil rights laws and must be changed.

After the law took effect, the number of claims denied for procedural errors soared by more than 400 percent, according to the National Employment Law Project.

The skills assessment delayed benefits for more than 120,000 job applicants in the first 25 months of the program, according to a report Feb. 17 by the Jacksonville Times-Union. Of those, 15,000 were deemed ineligible because they didn't complete the reviews.

DEO's rollout in mid-October of a flawed $63 million online filing system didn't help matters, as many of the unemployed saw filings rejected and payments delayed. The unemployed complained they were being evicted from their homes and their cars repossessed because they couldn't pay for basic living expenses while trying to find a job.

Neither could they reach DEO to correct problems. DEO added staff to wade through claims stuck in the system, which took months to resolve. The state levied a $15,000 a day find against system developer Deloitte for failing to deliver a fully functioning system last fall.

Sims, from DEO, said Deloitte has addressed all known defects in the system. She said the system performs better because of technical fixes, increased staff, policy changes and an improved economy with fewer people claiming benefits.